dole.
Distribution; dealing; apportionment.
Meaning & usage
Distribution; dealing; apportionment.
Distribution; dealing; apportionment. Distribution of alms or gifts.
Money or other goods given as charity.
Payment by the state to the unemployed; unemployment benefits.
I get my dole paid twice a week.
I've been on the dole for two years now.
A boundary; a landmark.
A void space left in tillage.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English dol, from Old English dāl (“portion, share, division, allotment”), from Proto-Germanic *dailą (“part, deal”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰayl- (“part, watershed”). Cognate with Polish dola (“fate, cut”), Old Church Slavonic дѣлити (děliti, “divide”). More at deal. First attested in the late 12th c. The verb is first attested in the mid-15th c.
To distribute alms, etc., in small amounts; to share out small portions of a meager resource.
To distribute (as, alms) in small amounts; to share out (small portions of a meager resource).
Where this word comes from
From Middle English dol, from Old English dāl (“portion, share, division, allotment”), from Proto-Germanic *dailą (“part, deal”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰayl- (“part, watershed”). Cognate with Polish dola (“fate, cut”), Old Church Slavonic дѣлити (děliti, “divide”). More at deal. First attested in the late 12th c. The verb is first attested in the mid-15th c.
A sorrow or grief; dolour.
Dolus.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English dole (“grief”), from Old French doel (compare French deuil), from Late Latin dolus, from Latin doleo.
Alternative form of dhole (“Asian wild dog”).
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.